Top congressional Democrats fire back against Trump’s plans to remove Federal Reserve governor
A slew of leading Democratic lawmakers have fired back at Donald Trump’s plans to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.
Chuck Schumer, the senate minority leader, accused the president of playing “a dangerous game of Jenga with a key pillar of our economy.” Schumer said that by attempting to remove Cook and install a loyalist, Trump would “shred” the Fed of its independence, and put “every American’s savings and mortgage at risk.”
The ranking member on senate banking committee, Elizabeth Warren, called Trump’s letter announcing Cook’s firing an “authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act, and must be overturned in court.”
As my colleague, Callum Jones, notes, the supreme court suggested earlier this year that the president did not have power to fire, without cause, governors of the US central bank. The Federal Reserve acts as an independent agency, whose members do not serve at the pleasure of the president.
Meanwhile house minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said that Trump was trying to remove Lisa Cook from her position without “a shred of credible evidence that she has done anything wrong”. Jeffries noted Cook’s achievement as the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve board, and added that “to the extent anyone is unfit to serve in a position of responsibility because of deceitful and potentially criminal conduct, it is the current occupant of the White House.”
Key events
Lauren Aratani
Donald Trump and his allies have been accused of executing a “pattern of lawfare” akin to those exerted by authoritarian regimes in Hungary and Russia after adopting a new strategy to target political opponents: allegations of mortgage fraud.
First it was Letitia James, the New York attorney general, then it was Adam Schiff, a Democratic California senator. Now, the president is now targeting Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, telling her that he was removing her from her position “effective immediately”.
Cook, the first Black woman to be appointed a Fed governor, was appointed in 2022 by Joe Biden. Her 14-year term is not due to expire until 2038.
Leading this new strategy is Bill Pulte, heir to a home construction company fortune, appointed by Trump to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees regulations of federal housing lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Pulte has used his role to publicly accuse Trump’s opponents, publishing extraordinary allegations on social media and referring them for investigation.
He alleges that James, Schiff and Cook all committed what is known as owner-occupancy fraud, when a person claims a second home or investment property is actually a primary residence to get better mortgages. Lenders are more inclined to give borrowers a lower mortgage on a primary residence, compared with a second home or investment property.
James and Schiff have denied the allegations. While Cook has pledged to “provide the facts” after gathering the relevant information.
Top congressional Democrats fire back against Trump’s plans to remove Federal Reserve governor
A slew of leading Democratic lawmakers have fired back at Donald Trump’s plans to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.
Chuck Schumer, the senate minority leader, accused the president of playing “a dangerous game of Jenga with a key pillar of our economy.” Schumer said that by attempting to remove Cook and install a loyalist, Trump would “shred” the Fed of its independence, and put “every American’s savings and mortgage at risk.”
The ranking member on senate banking committee, Elizabeth Warren, called Trump’s letter announcing Cook’s firing an “authoritarian power grab that blatantly violates the Federal Reserve Act, and must be overturned in court.”
As my colleague, Callum Jones, notes, the supreme court suggested earlier this year that the president did not have power to fire, without cause, governors of the US central bank. The Federal Reserve acts as an independent agency, whose members do not serve at the pleasure of the president.
Meanwhile house minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said that Trump was trying to remove Lisa Cook from her position without “a shred of credible evidence that she has done anything wrong”. Jeffries noted Cook’s achievement as the first Black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve board, and added that “to the extent anyone is unfit to serve in a position of responsibility because of deceitful and potentially criminal conduct, it is the current occupant of the White House.”
Twenty years on – Hurricane Katrina haunts New Orleans as Trump guts disaster aid
Dharna Noor
The response to Hurricane Katrina, which stuck the Gulf Coast 20 years ago this week, was a catastrophe for US disaster management, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) failing to reach victims quickly enough, or provide them with sufficient aid.
This month, I travelled to New Orleans, which was badly affected by the storm and the response. There, victims and other disaster experts told me they are afraid the US has – under Trump – walked back 20 years of progress in the disaster management field.
“We want more support, more help, not for them to take all that help away,” Betina James, whose home was destroyed by Katrina, told me.
Read more below:
John Bolton, whose home and office were searched by the FBI on Friday, has posted on social media today, comparing the raid to the Donald Trump’s diplomatic strategy in Ukraine.
The president’s former national security adviser turned political adversary wrote:
Donald Trump’s Ukraine policy today is no more coherent than it was last Friday when his administration executed search warrants against my home and office. Collapsing in confusion and haste, Trump’s negotiations may be in their last throes, along with his Nobel Peace Prize.
Bolton published an op-ed in the Washington Examiner yesterday expanding on, what he describes as, Trump’s “incoherent” policy plan.
More than 100 organizations demand release of American-Palestinian teen held in Israeli prison
Joseph Gedeon
A few weeks ago, I broke the story about Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim, a 16-year-old dual American-Palestinian citizen who has been held in an Israeli prison since February over allegations of rock throwing.
Today, over 100 US human rights, faith-based and civil rights organizations launched a major pressure campaign by signing a letter demanding secretary of state Marco Rubio immediately secure his release.
The coalition – which includes the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and Pax Christi USA – is warning that Ibrahim’s deteriorating health puts “his life on the line.”
The teenager, who splits his time between the West Bank and Palm Bay, Florida, was 15 when he was arrested from his family’s home in the West Bank. Since then, he’s developed scabies, lost at least 25 pounds, and spent his 16th birthday behind bars.
Read more below:
Attorney general touts 1,094 arrests in DC
Attorney general Pam Bondi said that there have been 1,094 arrests in DC since the federal law enforcement surge that began earlier this month. Bondi noted that “not a single carjacking has occurred over the past week” in the nation’s capital.
She also said that authorities arrested a man who was “caught burning our American flag”. Which comes after the president signed an executive order yesterday, instructing federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges against individuals who burn American flags during protests.
House minority leader Jeffries hits back at Trump plan to fire Federal Reserve governor
US House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat representing New York, said in a statement Donald Trump was trying to remove Lisa Cook from her position without “a shred of credible evidence that she has done anything wrong”.
Jeffries noted Cook’s achievement as the first black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve board, and added that “to the extent anyone is unfit to serve in a position of responsibility because of deceitful and potentially criminal conduct, it is the current occupant of the White House.”
‘No cause exists under the law’: Federal Reserve governor responds to Trump’s move to fire her
Lisa Cook responded to Trump’s plan to remove her from the Federal Reserve board of governors “effective immediately”.
In a statement emailed to reporters through the office of the lawyer Abbe Lowell, she said that “no cause exists under the law, and he [Trump] has no authority” to remove her from the job to which she was appointed by Joe Biden in 2022. A reminder that Cook was ultimately appointed for a 14-year term.
“I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022,” she said in the statement.
We’ll hear from the president at 11am ET today, when he hosts a meeting with his cabinet. He’ll take questions from the press, so we’ll make sure to bring you the latest when that kicks off.
The president is also set to meet with Indiana Republican lawmakers later today, around 1pm ET, to talk more about the redistricting push in the state.
The United States has agreed in principle to exempt Indonesian exports of cocoa, palm oil and rubber from the 19% tariff imposed by president Donald Trump since 7 August, Indonesia’s top trade negotiator said on Tuesday.
The exemption will take effect once both sides reach a final agreement, but no timeline has been set because the US is busy in tariff talks with other countries, Airlangga Hartarto, who is also the chief economic minister, told Reuters.
The two countries also discussed potential US investment in fuel storage in Indonesia in partnership with the Southeast Asian nation’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara and state energy firm Pertamina, Airlangga said in an interview.
“We are waiting for their response, but during the meeting, basically, the principal [exemption] has been agreed for products not produced in the US, such as palm oil and cocoa and rubber … it will be zero or close to zero,” he added.
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